Bear Growls: Mortality

He had been to touch the great death, and found that, after all, it was but the great death.

Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage

Our bruin friend at Saint Corbinian’s Bear had a recent reminder that bears do not live forever:

The evening before last, the Bear was lounging in front of his computer screen, when suddenly moderately severe chest pains struck. He waited for two minutes (having read somewhere that you should act on any chest pains that last longer than two minutes). Then he got up on his hind legs and announced to his driver, bodyguard and factotum, Red Death that we were going to the Veteran’s Administration Hospital ER right now.

After what might have been a sketch from the Three Stooges, with a special appearance by Buster, the Yorkie, who insisted on accompanying his master, Red Death and the Bear’s son managed to get the stricken Bear into the car.

During the thirty minute drive from the goat pastures of Zoar to the VA hospital, the Bear had to face the possibility it might be a one-way trip.

He pulled out his rosary and prayed it.

He contemplated his sins.

He was sorry.

He didn’t feel confident about judgment.

He regretted the drama of it all, as he imagined a medical team swarming all over his furry body, his family disrupted and grieving.

He told Red Death that he was open to massive employment of morphine if it came to it, short of hastening his death. (The Bear is a chicken, and Bears never turn down opiates.)

At the ER, they did an ECG. They drew blood. They put a line in. They hooked him up to a monitor. They gave him four baby aspirin to chew. The Bear asked for some diazepam. (Due to beingfrequently tranquilized by humans, the Bear has developed an appreciation for benzos.) His request was granted.

The Bear amused himself by making his blood pressure go up by picturing the Pope, and then making it go down by not. Seriously. He considered that the Pope might be hazardous to his health. He was, in fact, writing an ephemeris article about the Pope when he was afflicted.

He was ignored for an hour and a half, then they came in and took some more blood. The Bear was encouraged that otherwise they seemed have have forgotten about him.

Finally, a nurse came in and said everything was perfectly normal, and the Bear had not had a heart attack, and could leave. It was anticlimactic. Follow-up appointments were made with Cardiology.

This was a good way to start off Lent. Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return. Who really plans for their death? It seems to the Bear that making it up as he went along was not the best way of preparing himself. Perhaps the Bear will develop this issue.

Go here to read the comments. Praise God that this was a false alarm. Men often live their lives as if they will never die. Doubtless bears are wiser. Humans of course die, but are immortal. CS Lewis said it well:

“It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which,if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree helping each other to one or the other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all of our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.”

As for Death, the Grim Reaper will come for us when God determines and not a second before nor a second later. We need not be afraid of that moment, merely be prepared for it, living each day as if it were our last, and as if God would judge us purely on the day we are currently living.

One Comment

Wishing the Bear the best of health as well as the more important stuff.

I recently read the first half of St. Robert Bellarmine’s “The Art of Dying Well”. Well worth it. The first half is for general life, the second half for when death is more iimminent. One thing he talked about that I found very interesting: in discussing our relationships with God, others, and ourselves, he emphasized prayer (God), charitable giving (others), and fasting (ourselves). There were some powerful meditations on those three, which I’d never run across before. Two days’ ago’s fasting was easier with that book in mind.